No Matter What
by koriandrekitty
Summary: Snape finds that he must put up with a strange girl, since she has decided that she was going to be his friend no matter what he says or does about it, never mind that she is close to the Marauders. Is that girl willing to just be friends though while she's drawn to him the way she is? Rated M for possible course language and possible sexual content in later chapters.
1. Chapter 1: Going to School

Chapter 1: Going To School

**Disclaimer: I do not claim any rights to Harry Potter or any of the characters from it. They belong to J.K. Rowling. The only character that belongs to me, is my OC, Tabitha Tate.**

**AN: I know some people don't like OC's paired with characters from the series, but I don't care. This fanfic is more for me than anyone else, because I can't stand that Snape didn't have someone that loved him as much as he loved them and I feel that he deserved to be treated well by at least one person who didn't have any reason to, other than simply wanting to and feeling it was right.**

Tabitha grinned as she crossed into Platform nine and three-quarters, tugging lugging her trunk along behind her. Borris, her large, grey tomcat paced around in his carrier, agitated by the noise generated by the crowds of people on the platform.

"I really don't see how you can still get so bothered by the sounds around here." The fifteen year old dryly told her cat. Borris ignored her, swishing his tail unhappily as he continued to stalk about in his cage.

"Tabby, make sure to write to your father and I whenever you can." Her mother demanded, standing next to the girl's father. Tabitha was quite used to the demands her mother made each year before she got on the train.

"Yes, yes. I know. I also know to change my underwear every day, not to put Quidditch before my studies, and not to spend all my money on sweets when I go to Hogsmeade. I'm not a baby, mum. I'm a fifth year now." Tabitha sighed.

"I am aware that you aren't really a little kid anymore, but I'll always consider you my little baby girl." Her mother answered, pulling Tabitha in for a tight hug.

"Dad, can't you make mum cut it out?" Tabitha whined, getting embarrassed over how her mother treated her like a small child. Her father chuckled and gently pulled her mother away from her.

"Try to be patient with your mother, Tabby. She's just worried and doesn't want you to go away for such a long time. Neither of us do." Her father told her, ruffling her short blonde mane of curls affectionately.

"I know." Tabitha mumbled, running her fingers through her hair in a futile attempt to tame her unruly locks.

"I need to go board the train now or all the good seats will get taken." She told her parents. She quickly hugged them both and waved to them before she rushed to the train. She pulled her trunk behind her as speedily as she could while searching the compartments for any of her friends. She really didn't want to get stuck sitting with any strangers.

Tabitha smiled brightly when she opened the door to one compartment, seeing a very familiar person with long, black hair lankly curtaining a face that had its hawk-like nose buried in a book about the dark arts. He straightened his tall frame from the hunched position he had been in as he looked to see who had opened the door. He frowned at Tabitha, obviously not appreciating her intrusion. Black met green as she looked him in the eyes, still smiling cheerfully.

"Hello there, Severus!" Tabitha enthusiastically greeted. He said nothing and arched one brow elegantly, showing silent impatience towards her enthusiasm.

"Did you get any of my letters during break? I tried to owl you at least once a week." She questioned, looking a bit put out about him not owling back once. She knew that other than when Lily hung out with him, his summers had to be quite lonely.

"Yes. That owl wouldn't let me ignore him and leave until I took the letters. It was lucky my father didn't strangle it, Ms. Tate." Severus replied.

"Oh. I'm sorry that he was such a nuisance." Tabitha sighed, knowing that he didn't care to reciprocate the friendship she had tried to show him ever since their first year at Hogwarts, but wishing he'd at least show a bit of appreciation for her efforts. She also knew that the only actual friend he seemed to want was Lily Evans. She was quite jealous about this, but didn't hold it against Lily or Severus. She didn't think she had any right to hold it against them, seeing as she was friends with Lily and was best mates with Severus's school tormentors.

Severus gave a small nod, returning his eyes to his book. Tabitha frowned a little, refusing to be dismissed by him so quickly.

"You are aware that you can call by my first name, right? You could even call me Tabby, if you'd like. All of my friends do." She informed him, smiling lightly.

"If you don't mind, _Ms. Tate_, I would like to get back to my book and your incessant chattering is making it near impossible to concentrate." Snape sneered. Tabitha huffed quietly and puffed her cheeks out in indignation. She looked out of the window and didn't say anything, not wanting to annoy the unfriendly Slytherin more than she already had.

Severus glanced at Tabitha curiously after a few minutes, wondering why the strange Gryffindor insisted on staying in his presence rather than going off to find Potter and his merry band of fools. He didn't particularly mind having Tabitha around. He would even go so far as admitting to himself that her childish antics and flare for the dramatics could be quite amusing at times. Not that he'd ever admit that to anyone else though. He looked back at his book, knowing it was only a matter of time before she would start talking again.

Tabitha's eyes slowly turned towards Severus again. She didn't know why she was so intrigued by him the way she was. He wasn't traditionally handsome at all and he wasn't very nice to her usually. She had seen how he was with Lily, which proved that the normally cold and distant boy could be kind and even sweet. She just wished that he would be like that towards her. She watched him read for a few minutes, unaware that she was staring conspicuously.

"What is it, Tate?" Severus asked, annoyance lacing his tone. Tabitha jumped and giggled a bit, startled by his talking. Even with his unreadably calm expression and irritated tone, she was well-aware that she had made him nervous. She had watched him often enough over the years to be able to read him better than most, in her opinion.

"Nothing." She told him, flashing a bright smile at him. She had realized fairly swiftly after she had met him that he was an extremely self-conscious person with an unbelievably low self-esteem under the cold and uncaring mask he kept up pretty much all the time.

"I highly doubt that you're dunderheaded enough to stare at someone without any reason." Snape replied, catching her lie before it had even left her mouth.

"Really? You think that?" Tabitha asked excitedly, feeling very flattered. That had practically been a compliment about her intelligence from Severus, in her opinion. He lifted a brow at her strange behavior to what he felt was simply a fact. She was smiling quite happily at him, forgetting about explaining why she had been staring. It was then that the door to the compartment slid open, allowing James Potter and Sirius Black to look into the compartment.

"I knew we'd find you in her with Snivillus, Tabby." James announced, grinning at the short, blonde witch.

"Yeah. We came to rescue you from old Snivelly, Tabby Cat." Sirius added, glaring Severus before grinning at Tabitha.

"Be nice to Severus, you guys! And don't call me that, Padfoot! It makes me feel like I'm Professor McGonnagal." She reprimanded, hopping up from her seat.

"Be nice," Sirius started, "To Snivillus?" James finished, both of them looking at each other as if she had asked them to do something completely insane.

"Yes. Severus hasn't done anything to you guys or done anything wrong. I don't understand why you guys hate him so much." Tabitha huffed, crossing her arms over her chest.

"He didn't have to do anything to make us hate him. It's pretty much the fact that he exists that bothers us so much." Sirius explained, James nodding in agreement. Tabitha glared at the two, wondering how she had come to be best friends with them.

"Come on, Tabby. Come sit with us, Moony, and Wormtail." James requested, doing his best to look innocent. She sighed and rolled her eyes, knowing that she would inevitably give in.

"I'll see you at school, Severus." Tabitha said, looking quite reluctant to go. Before Snape could figure out what the girl would do, she had wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug. She smiled as his body stiffened at the unexpected touch, aware that he wasn't used to receiving affection.

"No matter what, I'll make you appreciate my friendship with you." She whispered to him. She pressed a quick kiss to the area between his eyes and toddled off after the two tall Gryffindor boys who were making loud gagging sounds. She simply giggled, having seen a blush cover Snape's face. She thought that Severus would probably be a bit shorter tempered with her for a few days, but she thought that it was well worth it.

Tabitha followed James and Sirius to the compartment that the Marauders had chosen. She smiled at Remus and Peter, glad to see them. She sat next to the tall, sandy-haired werewolf, listening to James as he recounted the "dangerous"mission he and Sirius had undertaken to "rescue her from Snivillus and his greasiness."

"Oh, for the love of Merlin! Will you just shut-up about Severus?" She asked, becoming very irked. Lupin managed to keep a straight face at the outburst. Peter simply looked shocked. Sirius and James, on the other hand, wrapped their arms around each other and pretended to cry in fear into each other's shoulder at the short female's irascibility. Tabitha rolled her eyes at her friends' antics.

"My trunk is still in Severus's compartment. Are you quite sure that I can't just go back back to sitting there?" She asked, not sure if she wanted to hang around if James and Sirius planned to continue their current behavior.

"We're positive about that, Tabby Cat." Sirius answered before sending Peter off to collect the witch's trunk. Tabitha put her legs up so that they were resting on her friends' legs. She rested her back against the cool window and closed her eyes, intending to take a nap. She slept for a few hours, only waking when Remus had shaken her, informing her that should go change into her school clothes. Tabitha dug her school clothes out of her trunk before she left the compartment to change into the in the girls' room.

After she had changed, she started to walk back to the compartment she had been sharing with her friends. She noticed Lily leaving a certain black-haired Slytherin's compartment, returning to a different compartment that contained some other Gryffindor girls who were giggling and gossiping like they usually were. Tabitha wondered why Lily hadn't sat with Severus throughout the entire train ride. The red-headed girl seemed to become more and more distant toward Snape with each passing school year, but had still still sat with Severus on the train-ride to school every year before this. She frowned a little and started walking to her compartment again. When she got there, she sat down between Sirius and James. Of course, she'd had to squeeze her way between them, seeing as they were completely enthralled in the conversation they were having with each other about Quidditch.

Soon enough, the Hogwarts Express came to a halt. Tabitha hurried after her friends as they got off of the train, looking around at the carriages that seemed to pull themselves. She pondered on whether or not James would succeed this year in talking Lily into sharing a carriage with him and the other Marauders. She also wanted to make sure that Severus didn't end up on one all alone.

"Potter, how many times must I tell you to leave me alone before it will get through your thick head?" Tabitha heard Lily loudly ask in irritation. She giggled, guessing that meant that James had failed yet again. She knew that he had hoped his new position of head boy would impress Lily and get her to spend more time with him, seeing as she was head girl. She spotted Snape's hunched shoulders in a carriage with some other Slytherins. She recognized them immediately as Regulus black; Sirius's younger brother, Avery, and Mulciber. She found her Marauder friends and joined them in their carriage, somewhat disappointed that she hadn't been able to sit with Severus.

"I'm guessing that Lily still hates your guts?" Tabitha inquired, looking at James bemusedly.

"I'll definitely win her heart this year. Just wait and see." James confidently answered. The short blonde rolled her eyes, finding it unreal how James could still have such a gigantic ego after being rejected by Lily constantly all throughout their years at Hogwarts.

"You say that every year, but just keep telling yourself that if it makes you feel better, Prongs." Sirius teased, grinning at his friend.

"With my looks and charms, it'll only be a matter of time." James said, explaining his logic. Tabitha laughed lightly as James and Sirius continued their banter, enjoying the company of her friends as they rode in the carriage towards the school, unaware of how her life would change there this year.


	2. Chapter 2: First Night Back At School

Chapter 2: First Night Back At School

**Disclaimer: I do not claim any rights to Harry Potter or any of the characters from it. They belong to J.K. Rowling. The only character that belongs to me, is my OC, Tabitha Tate.**

**AN: I'm not really sure if it's customary to wait any certain amount of time between posting chapters. I already had this much written, so I figured I'd post it already. Since I just posted the first chapter, I don't think anyone has read any of this story yet. I obviously have at least one now, if you're reading this. So, I hope you enjoyed the first chapter and this one as well.**

"We're here!" Tabitha cheered as the carriage came to a stop. She hopped out and impatiently waited for her friends to follow suite. She led them into the castle, skipping to the Great Hall. She was glad to be back at the school. She took a seat at the Gryffindor table, deciding to sit next to Lily.

"How was your summer, Tabby?" Lily asked as they waited for everyone else to sit down.

"It was pretty good. I spent a few weeks at James's house and hung out with him and Sirius like always." Tabitha answered, smiling at the red-headed witch.

"Ah. I'm guessing you three spent most of the time playing Quidditch?" Lily asked in reply, smiling back.

"You got it! Though, we were only able to play one position at a time, seeing as it was usually just the three of us. Remus was there for a few days, but he's lousy no matter what position he plays when it comes to Quidditch" The small blonde confirmed.

"So, did you get to spend much time with Severus?" Tabitha softly questioned, careful not to let herself seem jealous at the idea of it.

"Oh, I got to spend a little bit of time with Sev. My family went on vacation for a couple of weeks and then I spent most of my time catching up with my muggle friends when we got back, so so that didn't leave me much time to see him." Lily told her. Lily often wondered why the other girl tended to ask about Severus so much, since it was odd for a Gryffindor not to show hostility towards a Slytherin, especially when she was so close to James and his ilk. She hoped that it would eventually lead to Snape being close to Tabitha. She didn't like how much time he had started spending with the other Slytherins over the last couple of years and thought he needed some friends who weren't into the dark arts and becoming Death Eaters.

"Ah. I owled him quite a bit over break, It seems like all it accomplished was annoying him though and he never owled me back." Tabitha sighed.

"Really?" Lily asked, surprised. Severus hadn't said anything to her about getting letters from anyone. Her friend nodded, feeling a little sheepish about her spurned communication attempts toward Snape.

"I'll have to talk to him. It wasn't nice of him to have ignored your letters." The Red-headed Gryffindor told her. The blood left Tabitha's face, knowing that Lily getting on Severus's case would only serve to make him mad at her and embarrass her.

"No, no! You don't need to do that!" Tabitha assured nervously, glancing at the Slytherin table. She saw Severus sitting there, quietly watching Lily.

"Are you sure?" Lily asked, not looking fully convinced.

"Yep. It isn't a big deal, so bugging him about it would be pretty unnecessary." Tabitha answered, grinning uncomfortably; her grin more of a grimace than an actual grin.

"All right then..." The taller witch conceded, offering a small smile. Tabitha smiled back, grateful that Lily wouldn't mention it to Snape. They both looked up as Dumbledore announced the beginning of the sorting ceremony. Tabitha looked around; not paying much attention as the first years were sorted into the houses. She simply made sure to clap whenever the rest of the Gryffindors did. It was the same thing every year. After all the first years had been sorted, Dumbledore made his beginning of the year speech and then announced the beginning of the feast.

Tabitha talked to Lily and some of her other house-mates as she ate her meal. They didn't really talk about anything significant; they just made small talk. She smiled happily when James came over to talk to her about the Quidditch team tryouts for the year. She was confident that she'd get her place as a beater on Gryffindor's team like she had for the last three years. She knew that James would get his usual position of seeker as well, seeing as he was the captain of the Quidditch team.

Soon enough, Dumbledore ended the feast and bid the students and staff goodnight, saying they would all need lots of sleep for the beginning of the term tomorrow morning. Tabitha filed out of the Great Hall with the rest of the students, following the Gryffindor prefects to find out what the current password to the Gryffindor common room was. She giggled, watching Remus try to shepherd the wide-eyed first years. She was glad she wasn't a prefect.

After she heard what the password was, she snuck down to the entrance to the dungeons, looking for James and Sirius. They hadn't gone to the tower with the rest of their house, which had let her know that they were likely looking for either Severus or Mr. Filch to torment or prank. She tried to avoid any Slytherins who might be wandering in the dungeons, knowing that they would relish the chance to hex her or get her into trouble. She opened the door to the potions classroom a little, having seen some dim lights on under the door. She cautiously peeked in, not wanting Professor Slughorn to catch her sneaking around in the dungeons. She was relieved to see that Severus was the only one in there, brewing some sort of potion.

"Umm..Severus, have you seen Sirius or James anywhere near here?" Tabitha asked, walking into the classroom and closing the door behind her.

"What would Potter or Black be doing in the dungeons?... Obviously working on some sort of dunderheaded scheme, if they are." Snape sneered, focusing on the potion he was making.

"That's what I thought too. I wanted to make sure they didn't come to bully you or lose any housepoints already." Tabitha sighed, sitting down and watching him brew. Severus didn't say anything for a minute, almost looking as if he had forgotten about her being there.

"I don't need a girl, especially one from Gryffindor, protecting me from Potter or Black." He coldly answered after a moment.

"Well, friends are supposed to look out for each other, so deal with it." The small witch replied, not bothered in the slightest by what he had said. She was quite aware that he prided himself on not needing help and that it would offend him if she tried to do so, since he felt it meant that she was trying to make him look weak.

"We are not friends, Tate." Snape hissed.

"I say we are. I'm your friend no matter what you say and you are just going to have to come to terms with that." Tabitha insisted. The dark-haired wizard didn't say anything in response and it was impossible to see what he was feeling, since his hair hid his face. The witch stayed there, watching him. She liked watching brew potions. She thought it was relaxing, other than when he used her to test improvements he made to medicinal potions.

Severus wondered why this odd girl was so determined to be his friend and why she wouldn't leave. He was quite uncomfortable, remembering the unexpected affection she had given him on the train. He couldn't figure out why someone like her; Gryffindor, attractive, and friend of the Marauders, would want to be even be anywhere near him. He knew that he wasn't an attractive person and that being nice to him could result in that person getting negative attention from the Marauders.

"What potion are you making?" Tabitha asked after a little while. Whatever it was, it seemed to be a rather complex potion, which wasn't a surprise.

"Draught of Living Death." Snape answered. She nodded, impressed. That was a potion that even the older students struggled with.

"Why are you brewing that?" She inquired, not seeing any situations currently that would call for him to use something like that.

"I'm testing out some changes that could speed up the preparation time to see if they work and if they change the how the potion comes out at all." He explained. The blonde nodded again in response, smiling lightly. She found it astounding that Slughorn didn't sing praise of Severus's genius in potions. He was by far the most talented student in their year at potions, if not in the entire school. Tabitha started to doze off after a little while, feeling quite relaxed. She jumped up in alarm quite soon afterwards though, hearing a loud "boom."

"That must be the work of toue idiot friends." Severus calmly observed, never taking his attention off of the potion he was brewing.

"Well, Peeves could also be responsible." Tabitha claimed weakly.

"That would be highly unlikely, Ms. Tate, as I saw him following the Hufflepuff first years, making up rude songs about them." Snape replied, finishing up with the potion. Tabitha frowned a little, knowing that meant that he was more than likely correct in his assumption that James and Sirius were the culprits.

"We should probably stay in here for a littlw hile thne." She said, not wanting Severus to be bothered by mischevious friends.

"They have probably already been found a professor, so I see no reason to linger." Snape disagreed. He was using spells to clean his caudlron and tools. Tabitha bit her bottom lip anxiously, trying think of a way to keep the tall Slytherin boy from leaving for at least a few minutes. She looked around for anything she could use to distract him with. Not finding anything, she inwardly groaned, seeing that Severus was nearly finished with cleaning up. She walked up behind him as quietly as possible before tightly locking him a hug. Every muscle in his body instantly tensed up at the embrace. Tabitha was glad that she was behind him, since it prevented him from seeing her blush. She expected that he would be cross with her because of how much unauthorized body contact she had indulged in today, but she felt that it was more important to keep him from potentially running into James and Sirius, who were likely hidden somewhere underneath the invisibility cloak. She couldn't see how Severus was reacting to the hug, other than his tenseness, since he was using his hair to hide his face. After a few minutes, Snape pulled away from the hug, glaring at Tabitha. She was curious about what his homelife must be like for him to respond so negatively to being shown affection. She smiled shyly at him.

"Goodnight, Severus." She said before taking the opportunity to hug him again now that they were facing eachother, seeing as he was already mad at her about all the unwanted affection she had shown that day and another wouldn't change that fact. She knew she was pushing her luck with not getting hexed, but didn't particularly care at the moment. Severus tensed up again, but unlike the other times, started to relax after a minute or so. Tabitha smiled happily about this development before scurrying out of the potions classroom and up to Gryffindor tower. She went to bed that night, happy about Severus loosening up a little at her touch, but also contemplating what her friends could have done. She knew she'd probably find out the next morning.

**The chapters seem relatively short to me so far. I'll try to get work on making them longer. The chapter lengths will probably vary though, since I will most likely not be very good at estimating the length of each chapter.**


	3. Chapter 3: Of Lights And Hand Holding

**Chapter 3: Of Lights And Hand Holding**

**Disclaimer: I do not claim any rights to Harry Potter or any of the characters from it. They belong to J.K. Rowling. The only character that belongs to me, is my OC, Tabitha Tate.**

**AN: Thanks to all who have reviewed so far and to one of my very best friends, who read through my rough draft of the first two chapters, gave her opinion on it, convinced me to post it on here, and has put up with me talking about it nonstop. I hope you all continue to enjoy this story as much as I enjoy writing it, which is quite a bit.**

"Tabitha, wake up. You don't want to miss breakfast, do you?" Mary MacDonald, one of her roommates, asked, gently shaking her.

"Don't wanna get up..." Tabitha grumbled sleepily, pulling the duvet over her head and trying to go back to sleep.

"Too bad! James and Sirius are practically going nuts in the common room, waiting for you!" Mary told her, pulling the duvet off of the sleepy girl. Said girl groaned and sat up, rubbing her eyes.

"All right, I'm up." Tabitha said, climbing out of her bed. Mary grinned triumphantly, leaving to inform the other girl's impatient friends. Tabitha changed into her school clothes before going to the bathroom to brush her hair, brush her teeth, and put some light makeup on. Once she was finished getting ready, she left the girls' dormitories and descended the stairs to the Gryffindor common room.

"Finally!" James and Sirius chorused, standing at the bottom of the stairwell.

"If I have to be awake at this ungodly hour, then I demand to be carried to the Great Hall." The small, blonde witch announced, unwilling to leave until her demands were met. Sirius rolled his eyes and plucked her off of the floor to carry her in a princess style.

"Do you require anything else, oh great and powerful ruler?" He asked sarcastically, grinning at her. Tabitha shook her head and handed her school bag to James, who looked as if he'd die from impatience if they didn't leave soon.

"Onward to victory!" Tabitha exclaimed as Sirius started to carry her to the doorway leading out of the common room, where Remus and Peter had been waiting. Lupin rolled his eyes in amusement at his friends' childish antics. Peter looked at him curiously, having not paid attention to what the others had been doing. The group left the tower and made their way down to the Great Hall. Tabitha blushed a bit when she saw Severus glance at them from the Slytherin table. Sirius carried her over to the Gryffindor table and sat down, placing her in a lap in a bout of laziness. Tabitha squirmed out of his lap and squeezed in between him and Remus. Sirius raised a brow at her curiously.

"You don't like sitting in my lap anymore, Tabby Cat?" He asked, feigning great distress at the very idea of it. Tabitha rolled her eyes at his theatrics. While it was true that she had felt perfectly comfortable sitting in her friends' laps when they hung out during summer and in Gryffindor tower, she didn't want to be seen elsewhere like that.

"It's nothing like that at all, Padfoot. The problem is that someone might get the wrong idea about us." She answered, resisting the urge to look towards the Slytherin table.

"You say that like it's a bad thing. I personally think that it sounds like a good way to keep guys from going after you." He told her, pulling her back into his lap. Tabitha felt heat rise in her cheeks as she struggled to escape her friend's lap.

"You know, I think you're onto something, Sirius." James said, grinning conspiratorially at him. He grabbed the lightweight female and pulled her into his own lap.

"Remus, can't you make them stop?" Tabitha begged, trying to get away.

"Well, I could, in theory, but what fun would that be? I agree with them." The tall, scarred boy replied, having Sirius help him get her into his lap now.

"Come on, you guys, I'm not some sort of stuffed animal for you to share!" She whined, thinking that she should have gone back to sleep earlier. Seeing that her friends weren't going to let her sit beside them, rather than on their laps, she gave up on fighting against it. She grabbed a roll and stuffed it in her mouth, glaring at Peter, who was still sniggering over the whole thing. She wiggled around in Remus's lap as she chewed her roll, getting comfortable. This resulted in the four males laughing at her.

"Don't laugh. If I'm stuck with sitting in one of your laps, then I might as well make myself comfortable... Which is a feat in itself, seeing as Moony here is bonier than a thestral." Tabitha huffed, Sirius offered to let her sit in his lap instead, but she shook her head, having already gotten comfy in the werewolf's lap. She snuck a glance at Snape, at the Slytherin table. She blushed, seeing that he had caught her glancing at him. He looked disapprovingly at her, seeing her in Remus's lap. She sighed quietly and leaned back against Lupin unhappily, thinking about the sorts of things Severus might be thinking about her now that he had more than likely seen her sitting in all three of the tallest Marauders' laps. Remus looked down at her concernedly, having heard her sigh. She offered him a small smile, which he returned in kind. They left the Great Hall when Remus had pointed out to them that they only had ten minutes to get to the History of Magic classroom.

"I hate this class. Binns has to be the most boring professor in the world." Tabitha groaned, tossing her head back dramatically to show her unhappiness at going to the class.

"Stop moving around so much." James scolded, chuckling as he tried to get a more secure hold of her. He was giving her a piggy-back ride to the classroom while Sirius carried her school bag. She was glad that her friends were willing to make up for teasing her at breakfast like this. She liked not having to walk up and down the stairs, even if getting carried on them wasn't the safest.

"I don't think anybody likes History of Magic class, with the way Binns drones on." Sirius told her.

"Probably not." Tabitha agreed. She climbed off of James's back when they reached the door to the classroom. She wished Remus and Peter had this class with them. The two of them had Divinations this hour. None of them were happy about not being all together, but knew it was beyond their power. All unhappy thoughts fled from her mind when she saw that Severus was one of the Slytherins who had this class with them. She waved at Sirius and James before leaving them in favor of sitting next to Snape.

"Good morning, Severus." She greeted, smiling at him happily. The lanky Slytherin nodded in acknowledgement. Tabitha fished her textbook, quill, ink well, and some parchment out of her bag, trying to think of something to say.

"So... How did you sleep?" She asked lamely, unable to think of anything else ask.

"As well as usual." He answered, neatly arranging his supplies in front of him.

"Oh. That's good." She said, feeling a bit embarrassed at her lack of conversational prowess at the moment. Severus smirked a little to himself at the odd way the witch sitting next to him was behaving. It kept him from feeling the nervousness the events from the day before brought to him in her presence. Her nervousness made him feel more in control of their conversation and he was quite fond of being in control. He silently watched as she wiggled uncomfortably in her seat, waiting to hear what would come out of her mouth next.

About what you saw in the Great Hall... It really wasn't anything like what it looked like." Tabitha told him, biting her bottom lip anxiously. It almost looked as if she expected he would scold her, much to his amusement.

"What "what" looked like?" Snape asked, arching a brow.

"You know, me sitting in James, Sirius, and Remus's laps. I didn't have much say in the matter. They were making me sit like that just to get on my nerves." She answered, blushing brightly.

"Why would I care what you were doing in their laps?" He sneered, using the conversation to make her as uncomfortable as possible, as a sort of punishment. He wouldn't let her know it, but seeing her in the laps of the Marauders had bothered him quite a bit. It also bothered him that he didn't know why it had bugged him so much in the first place.

"Well, because we're friends, of course. Even if you don't care, I still wanted to let you know what really happened. I don't want you to think badly of me." Tabitha explained, giving him a shy smile. Severus felt a small rush of pleasure at her words, that she cared so much about his opinion of her, He couldn't remember anyone really caring about his thoughts, other than Lily, of course. He looked around the room for the redhead, realizing that he hadn't thought to look for her or to save a seat for her. He frowned, seeing her sitting all the way across the room with some other Gryffindor girls. He couldn't believe he had allowed himself to get distracted by the silly witch sitting next to him.

Tabitha saw that Severus was now watching Lily with a sour expression. She sighed softly, knowing that he was upset that she was sitting next to him, when he wanted to be next to the redheaded witch instead. She absently twirled one of her blonde curls around her finger, ignoring Professor Binns as he started class. She figured that she'd ask Remus to help her if they received any homework, seeing as he had this class later in the day. She glanced at the pale wizard sitting next to her every few minutes, feeling quite jealous of Lily. She hoped that he would notice her instead of Lily someday.

After a while, she felt something hit the back of her head. She turned around, wanting to know who was throwing things at her. She giggled, seeing that Sirius was in the middle of crumpling another piece of parchment into a ball to throw at her. She gave him a curious look, expecting him to let her know why he needed her attention. He grinned at her mischievously and sneakily waved some sort of small firecracker at her. He then put his hands over his ears to show her that she would want to cover hers. She shook her head at him, trying to dissuade him from using the firecracker. He shook his head in return, not going to give up on his plan to get out of class.

Tabitha smacked her forehead with the palm of her hand, seeing Sirius whisper _incendio, _lighting the firecracker. She covered her ears as he threw it at Professor Binns's podium. There was a loud "boom" that shook the classroom as it was filled with flashes of multicolored lights. Tabitha guessed that this was the same thing that she and Severus had heard last night. The firecracker quickly put an end to the lesson, since another professor would have to come undo the enchantment from the firecracker that made the blindingly bright lights continue to flash. Tabitha sighed as she left the classroom alone. Sirius and James had been sent to the office, since neither could be innocent when they had been sitting right next to each other. She didn't feel sorry for them, but didn't like being stuck all alone. Severus had stayed behind to wait for Lily to get to the door. That obviously didn't help her mood at all.

Since class had been cut early, Tabitha decided to drop her textbook off in the girls' dormitory. She walked up the many flights of stairs and came to a stop eventually at the Fat Lady's portrait.

"Password?" The painting demanded, looking at her boredly.

"Cat tooth." Tabitha answered. She walked into the common room as the portrait swung out of the way for her. She trudged up the stairs to the girls' dormitory, sulking and thinking unhappily about how her day had gone so far. She dropped her textbook on her bed before leaving Gryffindor tower again. She didn't know what to do now, since there was still at least half an hour until her next class. She wandered the halls of the castle aimlessly for a little while before she accidentally ran into someone.

"Oh! I'm sorry. I should have been paying more attention to where I was going." She apologized as she looked up to see who she had run into. She blushed, looking into the fathomless black eyes of Severus Snape.

"Indeed." He answered, though he hadn't actually been paying attention to where he was going either.

"Where's Lily?" Tabitha asked. She had expected that Severus and Lily would be walking together, seeing as he had waited specifically for her.

"In the library with some of her other friends." Snape answered bitterly. He had hoped to spend some time with his childhood friend.

"Oh. Would you like to walk with me then?" She asked, offering a friendly smile.

"I have nothing better to do." He replied, hiding the discomfort her presence always seemed to bring with her lately. His answer made the short, blonde witch smile quite brightly. He had never actually agreed to do anything with her before. She had always just came to him and hung around no matter how boring whatever he was doing was. She wondered if this meant he was becoming more accepting of her friendship. She walked with him happily, though she had to walk at quick pace in order to have any chance of keeping up with him at all, since his legs were so much longer than her own. Severus kept his cold mask up, hiding his nervousness from the small witch that was struggling to keep up with him. He jolted to a stop, feeling her grab his hand.

"You walk really fast. It's difficult to keep up on my own." Tabitha said in explanation to why she had grabbed his hand, blushing a soft, rosy color and smiled lightly at him. He nodded, forcing himself to start walking again before he could do anything that would reveal how much he liked the feeling of the girl's tiny hand holding his own. He figured that the reason he liked it so much stemmed from the instinctive need humans had for having contact with another.

Tabitha was feeling much happier now than she had all morning, enjoying being near Severus like this for as long as he would allow her to. She smiled, enjoying the sensation of her hand being engulfed by his much larger one. She usually thought larger hands seemed clumsy, but but his hands had always seemed quite graceful to her when she had watched him brewing potions. They were nicely shaped and had long, elegant fingers. She wasn't bothered by the coolness of his hand, thinking that it seemed fitting somehow. She glanced up at him, wondering what he was thinking about. He glanced at her as well and smirked at how utterly happy his schoolmate seemed to be about holding his hand. He had always thought Tabitha Tate was strange, but this confirmed it to him. He didn't mind though, thinking that he was being a fool for not being cautious enough about accepting her friendship. No one else would be happy at all about holding his hand. He found that he was oddly glad that she seemed to be so fond of him, making it a lot harder for him to find reason to not be friends with her. They walked together like this for the rest of the free time they had left before they had to start heading to their next classes. When it was time for them to start walking to their classes, they reluctantly parted, both secretly hoping that this would mark the start of a good friendship.


	4. Chapter 4: The Fun In Quidditch

**Chapter 4: The Fun In Quidditch**

**Disclaimer: I do not claim any rights to Harry Potter or any of the characters from it. They belong to J.K. Rowling. The only character that belongs to me, is my OC, Tabitha Tate.**

**AN: Here's the fourth chapter. I may work on the fifth chapter tonight as well. I will try to post a chapter tomorrow as well, but I can't make any promises about it. I have to get my wisdom teeth removed, so who knows what the day will be like.**

After walking with Severus as she had, Tabitha seemed to float through the rest of her classes that day. She and the rest of the Marauders had the rest of their classes together, save the class of the day, since Remus and Peter had Magic of History that hour. She smiled when she walked into the last class she had that day, Advanced Potions. She saw that Severus was had the class with her. She also saw that Lily was in the class as well and was sitting with Snape, like they had every year in Potions class. Even this didn't diminish Tabitha's good mood at all, though it meant that she was stuck with sitting with Sirius and James, which was a danger in itself in this class. James had dashed to get a seat behind Lily, which also enabled Tabitha to have a seat near Severus. This unfortunately meant that Sirius was sitting near him as well, which probably wasn't a very good thing.

"Good afternoon, class." Professor Slughorn greeted as he walked into the classroom, looking as much like a walrus as ever. He started talking to the class about the potion that they would start the school year off with. Tabitha listened carefully, wanting to make sure that she wouldn't mess anything up when they brewed it. The hour went by relatively fast, in her opinion, since they were kept quite busy with their potions. She thought she had made her's correctly and was proven correct when Slughorn came to check before class ended. She walked out of the classroom with Sirius and James, glad that they would have some free time now that classes were over for the day.

"Did you guys get detention for the firecracker?" Tabitha asked, knowing there was no need to ask. She looked over at the two pranksters, waiting for them to reply.

"Yeah. We have detention with Filch and eight o' clock tonight." James answered, giving Sirius a mischievous grin. Tabitha rolled her eyes bemusedly, knowing that the two would drive Filch off the wall during their detention. They walked up the stairs from the dungeons to meet up with Remus and Peter. The group met up and walked out of the castle to enjoy the weather while it was still nice. They walked to an area by the lake that was shaded by several trees. Tabitha took her cloak off and spread it out before sitting down on it, straightening her skirt out. The four boys plopped down around her, getting comfortable.

"Did Binns give you guys any homework?" Tabitha asked, looking over at Remus curiously. He rolled his eyes, pretending to be annoyed that she hadn't checked with Binns earlier. She stuck her tongue out at him playfully, making him chuckle.

"No, he didn't give any homework today." Remus told her, smiling lightly. She smiled back happily.

"What put you into such a good mood today, Tabby Cat? It was being around me and my good looks all day, wasn't it?" Sirius playfully asked, grinning.

"In your dreams, Padfoot. And I believe that it is none of your business at all." Tabitha replied, laughing lightly. She knew not giving him an answer would bug him, seeing as he liked to know everything that happened to any of them. He pouted a bit and then grinned again, not wanting to appear childish.

"What should we do today?" James asked, leaning back against a tree trunk boredly. The group thought about it for a while, not sure what they should do yet.

"I have no clue." Sirius yawned after a few minutes, unable to think of anything to do right now.

"Yeah, I've got nothing." Tabitha sighed feeling lazy.

"We could always get a head-start on studying." Remus suggested. The others wrinkled their noses at the idea and looked at him as if he were crazy.

"At the very least, we should do something that isn't destructive, like making a map." Lupin sighed. James and Sirius glanced at each other before grinning at him.

"Moony, you're a genius! Let's make a map that only we can use." James said, Sirius nodding his agreement.

"Really? You guys want to make a map?" Tabitha asked, thinking it sounded like a lot of work. Sirius and James nodded vigorously.

"All right then. I guess we know what we're going to be doing for quite a while then." Remus said, relieved that they had chosen to do something that wouldn't land them all in detention for the rest of the year. The map was what all of them focused on for the next couple of weeks, studying about different spells they could use on it in the library every chance they got. The only thing that interrupted their work was quidditch tryouts. Tabitha was walking to the quidditch pitch when Severus joined her.

"Good afternoon, Severus." She greeted, surprised to see him outside right now.

"Good afternoon." He answered, looking a bit uncomfortable. He was still getting used to being friends with her, even though it had been about two weeks.

"Is something wrong?" The blonde asked, looking up at the much taller student with concern.

"Nothing's wrong. I just... I just wanted to tell you to be careful." Snape told her, looking straight ahead as they continued to make their way to the pitch. Tabitha grinned, happy about finding out that he cared about her safety.

"I'm always careful. Since I've always played as a beater, I feel that I have to watch out more than one would while playing a different position, since the bludger is my main concern during the game." She said, letting him know that she knew to be aware of her surroundings. The Slytherin was unable to stop himself from grimacing slightly, imagining the sorts of things that could go wrong for his new friend.

"You can watch, if you want. I wouldn't let James or Sirius bother you." Tabitha said, knowing that he trusted himself more than her to keep her safe. He frowned at her comment about her keeping her friends from bothering him, but gave a small nod. Tabitha was the only actual friend he had other than Lily, so he fully intended not to let anything happen to her. She grinned at him, slinging her broom across her shoulders. They walked the rest of the way to the quidditch pitch in companionable silence.

"Why'd you bring Snivillus with you?" James called from the middle of the pitch, glaring at Snape.

"Leave him alone, Prongs, or I'll beat you senseless with your own broom!" Tabitha yelled back. She walked with Severus to the stands before jogging over to James and the other people who were trying out for the team. She saw Sirius watching from near the stands and waved at him. He grinned and waved back. She waited with the others for the last few people on the list to arrive for tryouts, impatient to get on her broom. She glanced at the Slytherin stands, wanting to see if Snape had really decided to stay and watch. She smiled, seeing that he was still there.

Tabitha mounted her broom as soon as James gave the OK. The tryouts mostly went quite splendidly for her. It was easy to tell that she and the other beat from last year would get their positions again, seeing as they were more experienced and not at all intimidated when the bludger flew at them. Things continued going well until she noticed that Sirius was no longer watching from near the stands. She swore softly to herself and looked over the stands for him.

"Don't you dare, Sirius Black!" She angrily shrieked, seeing him in the Slytherin stands, sneaking towards Severus with his wand out. His head shot up and he shot her an irritated look for bringing attention to him. Snape looked back at Black, his own wand in his hand now. Tabitha grunted as she felt the bludger hit her left shoulder painfully, sending her flying off of her broom.

Severus was about to hex Black when he heard the loud thump and a grunt of pain. He immediately turned around and saw Tabitha falling towards the sand-covered pitch. He left the stands as quickly as he could, Black at his heels. He felt cold hatred bubbling up in him for the boy behind him as he hurried to his friend's side. He thought that this was all the other boy's fault. If Black hadn't been about to use some sort of spell on him, Tabitha wouldn't have been distracted, he, himself, wouldn't have become distracted, and most importantly, she wouldn't have gotten hurt.

He crouched down at the injured witch's side, unsure if she was conscious. She groaned in pain and tried to roll over, not liking having sand in her face. She hissed and stopped moving; a sharp pain preventing her from moving her left shoulder or hand from where they were. She took a sharp intake of breath, feeling cool hands move to her back and stomach, helping her roll over and sit up. She blinked her eyes rapidly for a couple of minutes, not wanting anybody to see her cry from the pain. Severus looked her over grimly for any other injuries than he had already noticed. James and Sirius were spewing out questions to her about how badly she was hurt, but she tuned them out, looking around frantically for her broom.

"My broom.. It's okay, isn't it?" She asked. All three of the boys stared at her blankly for a moment before Snape rolled his eyes.

"It's fine. Potter and Black will take care of it for you." He told her, helping her up and leading her away from the pitch and to the hospital wing in the castle. When they got to the hospital wing, the school's new nurse, Madame Pomfrey, clucked and had him take Tabitha to one of the beds in there. He sat down in the chair next to the bed the blonde girl was currently sitting on, waiting while the nurse looked over her injured shoulder and wrist. Pomfrey told them that she had fractured her left shoulder blade and broken her wrist. She then had the girl take a pain reducing potion and another potion that would mend her bones. Snape waited for the first potion to reduce Tabitha's pain before he let her know of his displeasure about what had happened.

"I was under the impression that you were going to be careful?" He asked, his tone letting her know of how unhappy he was.

"I was being careful... I just got distracted." Tabitha softly complained, looking over at him.

"If you were being careful enough, you wouldn't have allowed yourself to get distracted." Severus scolded, scowling. Tabitha smiled a little, knowing that his mood was from worrying about her. She reached out with her uninjured arm and placed it on his shoulder.

"You're right. I got distracted when I should have been paying attention to what was going on in the pitch. I'm sorry for being too careless and upsetting you." She apologized, knowing that arguing would only make him angrier and make it seem like she didn't appreciate his concern for her well-being. His black eyes searched her face for a moment, making sure that she wasn't being sarcastic about the apology. He then gave a small nod. He was now thinking of ways to get back at Black for causing Tabitha to get hurt. The witch watched him, able to see that he was quite angry still. She hoped that he and Sirius wouldn't be at each other's throats even more than usual because of what had happened, but had a feeling that that was exactly how things would go. She moved her hand from his shoulder and slid it into his, hoping to calm him down.

"Do you think that I still made the team?" She asked quietly. Severus looked at their hands and then at her face, unsure what to think of her question.

"Undoubtably, Potter is the captain, after all. Though, I don't understand why you would want to participate in the sport." He answered, disapproval lacing his words. He didn't want her to get hurt again. The blonde giggled and flashed him a grin.

"Quidditch is great! What fun would it be, if there wasn't any danger in it?" She asked, tilting her head slightly. The Slytherin simply rolled his eyes at her carefree attitude towards dangerous pass-times. He stayed there with the Gryffindor, waiting for her bones to finish mending completely. The Marauders piled into the hospital wing all too soon, fully intending to smother their friend with their concern. James and Sirius came to a halt as soon as they noticed that she was holding Severus's hand. They looked both shocked and thoroughly grossed-out, obviously thinking that she and Snape had been flirting or something of that nature. Peter looked at the other boys, not knowing how he should react. Remus merely looked amused at the whole scene. Tabitha gently squeezed Severus's hand, having seen that he had started to get up. He settled back into his seat, understanding that she wanted him to stay. Sirius glared at Snape, having seen the small exchange that had taken place just then. The Slytherin smirked, easily able to see that Black was jealous about Tabitha giving him such attention.

"You shouldn't be so nice to Snivelly, Tabby Cat. It might make him think that he means something to you." Sirius told the witch, grinning maliciously at the dark-eyed boy. Tabitha sucked in a small breath, not understanding why her friend was so cruel to Severus.

"I'll do whatever I want, Sirius! Severus is my friend, so he means quite a bit to me. That's why I've become really sick and tired of hearing you say things like that!" She angrily answered, glaring at him. Snape discreetly gave Black a triumphant smirk, seeing that it had hurt the shaggy-haired Gryffindor's feelings that Tabitha had sided with him and had gotten mad.

James frowned, unhappy about his friends not getting along. He didn't like that Tabitha seemed to be becoming such good friends with Snape, but knew better than to say anything about it. He gently patted Sirius on the back, seeing that he was feeling pretty down already about Tabitha being mad at him. He walked a bit closer to her, still wanting to make sure that she would be all right.

"How badly were you hurt?" He asked, looking her over for any signs of her injuries.

"Not badly enough to stop me from playing." Tabitha answered, grinning at him. He grinned back, glad to see that she was obviously feeling better.

"Good, because you have your position again as a beater on the team." He told her. Remus and Peter walked over to talk to her as well, Sirius hanging back sulkily.

"We're all very relieved that you're all right." Remus said, smiling lightly at her. She smiled back happily, relieved that he hadn't shown any signs of being bothered by Severus being there.

"Yeah. We're all really glad that the nurse was able to fix you up." Peter added, giving a quick grin.

"Thanks, you guys. I'm glad that you came by to check up on me." Tabitha said. The Marauders left soon after that. She giggled a little, able to see that Severus was quite relieved that they had left.

"James and Sirius aren't bad at all most of the time, you know. I'm sorry about them going after you like they do." She told him, wishing that they'd all just treat each other civilly at the very least.

"There's no reason for you to apologize. They're the ones who act like prats." Snape answered, not seeing why their actions gave her a reason to feel guilty. She smiled lightly at this and gently squeezed his hand again, glad that he was willing to be her friend even though she was also friends with his main bullies.

"How long do you think Pomfrey will want to keep me here?" She asked, wanting to sneak out now, since Pomfrey was busy back in her store room.

"All day, I would imagine." He replied, understanding. They both got up and quietly left the hospital wing. They walked with each other to the main hall, both knowing that they should return to their common rooms.

"See you at dinner." Tabitha said, smiling at him.

"Yeah, I'll see you then." Severus answered, feeling his lips tug up in the barest of smiles.


	5. Chapter 5: Boys Will Be Boys

**Chapter 5: Boys Will Be Boys**

**Disclaimer: I do not claim any rights to Harry Potter or any of the characters from it. They belong to J.K. Rowling. The only character that belongs to me, is my OC, Tabitha Tate.**

**AN: In case you didn't see, I wrote a side-story in honor of Valentine's Day that may be used in place of a chapter for No Matter What later. I hope you guys continue to enjoy this story as much as I enjoy writing it. :)**

Severus walked to the Slytherin common room, thinking about ways he could get revenge on Black for getting Tabitha hurt earlier. After he had given the portrait the password and walked into the common room, he sat down on a chair in a secluded corner. He thought about possible paths to go with his revenge for a little while before he formed a plan. He'd have to make sure that Tabitha didn't find out, since she probably wouldn't be happy if she found out what he was up to.

Tabitha walked with James, Remus, Sirius, and Peter to the Great Hall for dinner, laughing with them at something silly that James had said. She noticed Severus walking to the Great Hall as well from the direction of the dungeons. She smiled at him, letting him know that she saw him. He motioned for her to come over to him. She left her group of friends and walked over to the Slytherin, curious about what he could want.

"Hi, Severus." The small blonde greeted, looking up at him with a friendly smile.

"Good evening." The gangly Slytherin replied, the corners of his lips curling upwards slightly. He glanced over at the direction Tabitha had come from and saw, to his satisfaction that Black was still there, watching them. He looked back at the witch and placed a hand on her back, steering her a bit farther away so that it looked like they were going to discuss something private. She tilted her head slightly, wondering what Severus needed.

"Do you have anything to do after dinner?" He asked her, looking at her questioningly.

"Well, I have to work on that essay Slughorn assigned to us yesterday." Tabitha answered, grimacing a little.

"Would you like some help with it then?" Snape asked her, clearly able to see that she wasn't looking forward to writing the essay. She smiled lightly and nodded.

"It wouldn't be a bother for you?" She asked, not wanting to burden him.

"Of course not. I don't have anything else to do tonight." He assured.

"Brilliant. Shall we meet in the library after dinner then?" The blonde asked, looking up at her friend happily.

"Yes, that sounds like the best place to go to meet up at." The Slytherin replied, walking to the Great Hall with her.

"All right. I'll see you after dinner then." She said before going over to the Gryffindor table. He nodded and went to his house's table. He was quite pleased with the way things were going so far for his plan. He glanced over at the Gryffindor table as he ate his meal quietly, smirking at how agitated Black looked.

Soon enough, Severus finished eating his dinner and left the Great Hall. He walked to the library and sat down at his favorite table, in a secluded corner that barely anyone ever went anywhere near. Tabitha walked in after a short while and scanned the library for him. She walked over and sat down after she had found him. She looked through her bags, pulling out some parchment, a quill, an inkwell, and her potions book.

"I really appreciate you helping me with this essay. I've been been absolutely dreading it. Normally I don't have much problems, but I've had a hell of a time finding any information on the potion this essay is about." Tabitha told him, smiling gratefully.

"It's no problem, I assure you." Snape replied. He'd already finished his essay and knew where to find the information for it.

"Still, it means a lot to me that you're going to help me with it." She told him sincerely. She knew that he didn't just offer to help people like this usually. He gave a small nod, feeling just a little guilty about not having pure intentions in helping her with her homework. He was simply using this as a reason to have her near him and away from Black, knowing that it would drive the other boy mad. After he collected the books they would need, they set to work on the essay.

They worked on the essay for about half an hour before Severus noticed Black and Lupin enter the library. The two Gryffindor boys sat at a table that enabled Black to watch him and Tabitha. Snape was glad to see Tabitha hadn't noticed her two Gryffindor friends enter the library. He put an arm around her and moved so that he was partially behind her, pretending like it was in order to get a better look at the book she trying to get information from for the essay. She blushed a bit at how much closer he was to her now, but didn't do anything to show that she wanted him to move.

Tabitha leaned back lightly against Severus without thinking about it after a little while, still reading from the book. She quickly realized what she had done, having felt Snape tense up momentarily in response. She thought that he would probably move away from her, but was pleasantly surprised that he didn't move away at all. Tabitha smiled lightly and continued working on her essay with him. They kept on working on the essay until they finished it a couple of hours later.

"Thanks, for helping me out with my homework, Sev." The blonde witch said, surprising them both with the use of the nickname that Lily commonly used.

"You're welcome." The Slytherin answered, deciding that he didn't mind her calling him that. She smiled, glad that he didn't seem bothered by it.

"So, are you going to work on any potions tonight?" She asked him, hoping to spend a bit more time with him. He thought about it for a moment before nodding, thinking that it would give him another reason to keep her to himself and away from Black for a bit longer.

"Would it be all right if I watch then?" She asked, grinning.

"I guess that would be fine, as long as you don't talk too much." He told her, already starting to walk down to the dungeons. She jogged to catch up to him. They walked down to the dungeons together, Tabitha humming softly to herself. Snape smirked a little, listening to her hum a tune slightly off-key. He opened the door to the potions classroom and held it open for her. He entered the room after her and shut the door behind him.

Tabitha sat down at one of the tables in the classroom and snuggled up in her school cloak, watching Severus as he flipped through a potions book to pick out a potion to brew. She folded her arms on the desk and rested her head on them, feeling quite content like this. She watched as the tall boy gathered up ingredients and other supplies, having decided on a potion. It didn't bother her that he didn't want her to do anything to help at all. She was happy that he allowed her to even keep him company while he brewed like this.

Severus worked on his potion for nearly an hour before glancing over at Tabitha. The small blonde appeared to have fallen asleep. He continued brewing his potion, figuring that he would let her sleep until he was finished brewing and had finished putting away his supplies. It was nearly another hour before he had finished brewing the potion and had put away his supplies. He walked over to his sleeping friend, intending to wake her up. He reached out and gently shook her shoulder.

"Tabitha, you need to wake up." He said, continuing to lightly shake her. She grumbled something unintelligibly and wrapped her small hands around his own much larger one. He tried to remove his hand from hers carefully.

"No, want to stay.. Stay with me for a little longer." The tiny witch murmured, still asleep. Snape sighed, but sat down next to her non-the-less, complying to the sleeping girl's demand.

"Fine. We can only stay thirty more minutes though." He said, not caring whether or not she heard. He looked through his potions book while he sat with Tabitha, letting her sleep. He spent the next half hour reading his potions book for the umpteenth time, filling in some more of the margins with his spidery handwriting. In what seemed like no time at all, that half hour passed, and so Severus carefully shook Tabitha again to wake her.

"Sev? What's going on?" Tabitha mumbled, opening her eyes and yawning.

"It's time to head back to our houses. It's getting late." Snape told her. She stretched and nodded, understanding. They both stood up and left the potions classroom. Severus walked with Tabitha up to the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"Goodnight, Sev." She softly said, offering a small smile.

"Goodnight, Tabitha." Severus replied, letting his lips curl up in the slightest of smiles. He turned and went back down the stairs to go to the dungeons, to get to his own house.

"Tabby, why'd you spend all day with Snivillus instead of us after dinner?" James asked asked as Tabitha entered the Gryffindor common room.

"Severus is my friend too. I'm allowed to spend time with my friends outside of our group, you know." Tabitha told him, walking over to the couch and lying down on it.

"Yeah, but why would you want to? Nobody's as much fun as we are." Sirius said, sitting down in front of the couch. Tabitha glared at him before turning so that she was facing away from him. She was still very mad at Sirius and didn't want to be around him right now. He frowned, quite unhappy about her being mad at him and seeming to be getting so chummy with Snape.

"The two of you should probably leave her alone about her friendship with Snape. It seems to only make her upset with you." Remus advised, looking at the three from over the book he had been reading.

"Yeah.. I guess you have a point, Moony. Where's Peter?" James sighed, sitting down next to Sirius on the floor.

"I think he said something about the hospital wing earlier or something like that. He said he wasn't feeling good." Sirius answered, yawning. The only response the others gave was a simultaneous yawn. This caused Tabitha to glance at the clock and realize that they should probably all head to bed soon.

"G'night, you guys. I'm going to bed." She announced, getting up and walking to the stairwell to the girls' dormitories.

"Goodnight." The boys called back to her, filing towards the stairwell to the boys' dormitories.

Tabitha walked up the girls' dormitories and then over to her bed. She dug her pajamas and some clean underclothes out of her trunk before walking over to the bathroom. She took a quick shower and changed into her bedclothes before leaving the bathroom. She quietly climbed into bed and swiftly fell asleep. She dreamt of werewolves, ocelots, dogs, rats, stags, and dark haired boys.

"Hurry, Tabby! You won't have time to get ready, if you don't wake up!" Lily loudly said, shaking the poor blonde senseless.

"I'm up, Lily! I'm up!" Tabitha whined, trying to unlatch the other girl's fingers from her shoulders. She wondered why Lily always seemed to think that they'd be late if everyone didn't move at their top speeds in the morning. She ran her fingers through her wild, blonde curls as Lily released her and yawned. She got out of bed and grabbed some clean clothes from her trunk. She then walked to the bathroom and got ready for the day.

"Tabby, you really must find a spell to manage that hair of yours." Lily said as she and Mary walked down the stairs with Tabitha.

"What's wrong with my hair? I think it's fine the way it is." Tabitha huffed, trying to flatten down her hair in vain.

"It's obviously out of control. It always is." Mary informed her, giggling at the display.

"That's why I keep it so short. I don't have to bother with it and it can do whatever it wants while still looking good." Tabitha said, hurrying down the stairs to take refuge in her male friends.

"James, Sirius, my hair looks fine the way it is, right?" She asked, looking up at the two.

"Of course, Tabby Cat. Your hair is adorable as always." Sirius answered, winking and ruffling the blonde's hair.

"Umm.. I agree with whatever Lily says." James said uselessly. Tabitha stuck her tongue out at him and swatted at Sirius's hand.

"So, Tabby Cat.. Does this mean you've forgiven me then?" Sirius asked as they walked to join Remus and Peter, who were leaving the common room.

"Obviously. I'll be really mad, if I see or hear you do anything bad towards Severus though." Tabitha sighed, rolling her eyes. Sirius merely grinned at James, quite pleased about her no longer being upset with him. Tabitha and Remus talked about assignments in various classes as the other three horsed around with each other; all of them walking to the Great Hall together. Tabitha glanced at the Slytherin table as they walked into the Great Hall and frowned, not seeing Snape there. She wondered where he could be.

After breakfast, Tabitha left the Great Hall, wanting to see if Snape was in the library. Even though he was a very anti-social person, it was still quite strange for him to not show up for breakfast at all. She planned to check all the places he could be, wanting to make sure that he was all right. She walked into the library and looked around. She easily recognized the lanky figure of her Slytherin friend at his usual table, writing hurriedly on a piece of parchment.

"It isn't good to skip breakfast, Sev." She whispered, sitting down next to him. He glanced up at her momentarily.

"I wasn't feeling very well." He told her, continuing to write. She frowned, able to tell that something was bothering him.

"Do you want to talk about it?" The small witch quietly asked, biting her bottom lip concernedly.

"No.. Would you just.. Just stay here with me for a while?" He softly asked in reply, sighing quietly.

"Of course, Sev." She answered, wanting to help any way she could, even if she didn't know what was bothering her friend. They stayed in the library silently with each other for the next couple of hours, not caring that they had skipped their first two classes of the day.

"Lily.. She's upset with me about how much time I spend around my housemates." Severus quietly told her as they walked out of the library together.

"That's kind of dumb.. They're your housemates, so you of course you have to spend some time with them. You live together." Tabitha said, blowing a stray curl away from her face in irritation. Lily Evans really got on her nerves sometimes with the way she seemed to get on Severus's case about such stupid things. Snape grunted in response, unwilling to say anything that went against the redheaded witch. Tabitha rolled her eyes and tightly wrapped her arms around her gangly friend.

"If it's any consolation, I'd never get mad at you over something like that. My friends give me shit about spending time with you, so I know how frustrating it is to have friends that judge you for hanging out with people they don't approve of." She told him, hugging him still. He was glad that he had her as a friend as well as Lily. It was very comforting to be have a friend to talk to when the other one was mad at him. He hesitantly hugged her back, showing his appreciation for her unconditional affection for him. This caused her to smile lightly, momentarily forgetting her agitation that had been caused by Lily.

"Do you think we're going to get detention for cutting class?" Tabitha asked him when they let go of each other.

"That seems highly likely." Snape answered, frowning a little.

"Oh well. I guess we should head to our next classes then." Tabitha sighed, grabbing his hand. Snape walked her to her next class before walking to his own.

**AN: I feel like this chapter is sort of short, but I had a harder time with it. I kept thinking about the next chapter and my pain killers from getting my wisdom teeth made it really hard for me to focus and think of anything worth writing. I hope it was still all right. The next chapter should be much better though.**


	6. Chapter 6: I Can't Help But Notice

**Chapter 6: I Can't Help But Notice**

**Disclaimer: I do not claim any rights to Harry Potter or any of the characters from it. They belong to J.K. Rowling. The only character that belongs to me, is my OC, Tabitha Tate.**

**AN: I feel bad about how lazy I've been about getting the last two chapters up. I'll try to speed up again. Thanks for putting up with my laziness. :P I haven't had internet connection for the last week or so. I meant to post this chapter a long time ago.**

Tabitha grinned and danced from one foot to another excitedly. Their first quidditch game of this school year was about to begin. The Gryffindor team was going to be playing against Ravenclaw. She mounted her broom at the same time as the rest of the team, holding onto her bat tightly with one hand. They all took to the air as soon as Madame Hooch blew her whistle.

Tabitha hooted, overjoyed at feeling the sensation of flying again. She zoomed around the pitch in a quick lap before looking about for the bludgers. She ended up not having to search for long, since one of them started to shoot at her from her left. She quickly turned and hit it as hard as she cood with her bat, sending it through a nearby goal hoop. The game went on for nearly an hour before James caught the snitch, winning the game for the Gryffindors. Tabitha smiled and watched as he took a victory lap around the pitch on his broom. She rolled her eyes in amusement when she saw him blow a kiss to Lily, who completely ignored him. She flew down so that she could land and dismount her broom.

"You guys kicked ass, as always!" Sirius cheered, thumping her on the back in a congratulatory manner with one of his hands.

"Thanks, Padfoot." She answered, stumbling a bit from the force of the thump on her back. She stood on the tips of her toes after regaining her balance, trying to see over the people leaving the Slytherin stands to look for Severus. He had told her that he would come to watch the game, but she knew that he wasn't fond of quidditch. She ran to the stands the moment she saw him, wanting to ask him what he had thought of the game.

"You did come!" She cheered, throwing her arms around the lanky teenager and dropping her bat.

"Yes. I had told you that I was going to, didn't I?" He asked in reply, gently patting the small blonde's back as a subtle way to return her affectionate display.

"Yeah. It just makes me really happy to see you here." She told him, burying her face in his robes. He rolled his dark eyes at her silly giddiness, but did nothing to stop her. In truth, he was quite proud of his friend for how well she had played and was glad that she hadn't been hurt again.

"Did you enjoy the game, Sev?" The blonde asked, her voice slightly muffled from her still having her face partially buried in his robes.

"It was fine. You do realize that people are staring at us though, right? You're being a little friendlier with me than what is publically acceptable for anyone." Severus answered, watching as she took a step back, her face reddening.

"Sorry. I was excited about you watching the game." Tabitha apologized, running her hands through her wind-tussled locks.

"Do you have any plans for the day?" She asked, looking up at the pallid Slytherin shyly.

"None so far." He said, curiously watching her. He was trying to figure out why she seemed to get so nervous and shy around him at times.

"Excellent! Will you go to Hogsmeade with me then?" She asked, biting her bottom lip anxiously.

"Why would I want to go there?" He questioned, poising one of his brows.

"It'd be fun. I need to get some things for my cat and there's a few books that I want to buy. It's always boring to go alone and I don't feel like going with the others." Tabitha sighed, looking quite put-out at the prospect of going without him. He sighed irritatedly.

"I'll go with you. Just try not to dawdle too much." Snape said, not appearing to be looking forward to it at all.

"Yay! Thank you, Sev!" His short friend happily exclaimed, locking him in a tight embrace again.

"Let's go. Before Sirius and James try to drag me up to Gryffindor tower to party with the rest of the house in celebration of winning the game." She said, grabbing his hand and hurrying away from the quidditch pitch. Tabitha didn't care that she was still in her quidditch uniform. It would take too much time to go change into her normal clothes and she really didn't want to get stopped by Sirius or James. She made her way across the grounds as swiftly as she could with Severus.

"Why are you so keen on avoiding celebrating with your housemates?" Snape asked as they got into the line of people with permission forms to go to Hogsmeade.

"Well, it isn't so much that I don't want to celebrate with them as it is that I'd rather go to Hogsmeade with you." Tabitha answered, hoping that she didn't sound too much like a little school girl with a crush or something.

"I imagine that Potter won't be pleased about it at all.." He replied, sounding amused.

"Who cares? I'm sure he'll get over it." She retorted, laughing a little, not bothered about it in the slightest.

". . . And Black? It doesn't take one being a master of divination to know that he'll be steaming by the time we get back." He commented. This caused her to give a small wince.

"Dealing with him won't be pleasant, but I'll survive. He isn't the boss of me and he's going to have to accept that at some point." She said, sighing quietly. Severus didn't understand how she put up with the Marauders the way she did.

Soon they boarded the train and got comfortable, waiting for it to take them to the nerby wizarding village. Tabitha snuggled up in her red quidditch cloak, feeling a little bit cold. Severus gave her a disapproving look to let her know that he thought she should have changed into something warmer. He then started to quietly read a book about legilimency. They rode the train in a companionable silence.

"We're here!" Tabitha exclaimed as the train came to a stop.

"Obviously." Severus answered, standing up. Tabitha stuck her tongue out at him playfully and led him out of the train. Snape rolled his eyes at the female's childish ways, restisting the small grin that was trying to fight its way onto his face. The two walked away from the train and made their way to Flourish and Blotts.

Tabitha took in a deep breath as they entered the shop, taking in the scents of books, fresh parchment, and ink. She smiled happily, enjoying the familiar smells. Severus watched her curiously, not knowing what she was so happy about. He rolled his eyes, seeing her open various books for seemingly no reason other than to flip through the pages without seeing what was even on them.

"Don't judge me. I love the way new books smell, Sev." Tabitha playfully huffed, furrowing her brows to mock irritation.

"I never said I was judging you for your silly behavior, did I?" He asked, smirking at her immaturity. She simply giggled and flounced off to aisles that held a large assortment of books about quidditch.

"You dragged me here to get books about that silly game?" Severus asked, exhasperated with her.

"Yeah. Well . . . to get some more food and treats for Borris too." Tabitha answered, picking out a few different books.

"I had assumed that you wanted me to help you pick out a new potions book or something of that nature." He told her, not seeing why she had seen it fit to take up his time with something as unconsquencial to him as buying quidditch books.

"Nope. I simply wanted to spend time with you, believe it or not." She said, carrying her books to the counter to pay for them. He followed, surprised to find that he really didn't mind that she had brought him for no reason other than to be around him.

"Want to go to The Three Broomsticks for some butterbeer?" Tabitha asked as they walked out of the book store.

"I'm not fond of butterbeer." Snape told her. This was true, but he had said it mostly because he didn't want to tell her that he barely had a sickle to his name.

"Oh. They have other things to drink too." His small, blonde friend said in reply.

"I'm not thirsty, Tate." He said coldy, his defense of unfriendliness coming out. Tabith sighed softly and frowned, her feelings hurt. Severus kept up an emotionless mask, but was inwardly berating himself for treating her badly. He hesitantly took her hand into his own, not letting any emotion show even though he was quite nervous that she would reject that small bit of contact he'd just made.

"Aww, Sev. It's okay. I forgive you." Tabitha said, dropping her bag of books so that she could use her free arm to wrap around the arm that was connected to the hand that was holding her own. Severus looked down at her, highly relieved that she had understood why he had grabbed her hand and that she hadn't turned him away and had forgiven him instead. It surprised him how forgiving she was towards him.

"You should probably pick your books up." He quietly said, giving her hand a gentle squeeze.

"Yeah." She agreed, releasing his arm and picking her bag of books up. They walked to Eeylop's Owl Emporium together so that Tabitha could could make her purchases for her cat. Tabitha picked up a small bag of cat food and couple of bags of cat treats before walking to the front of the shop to pay for them. This concluded the shopping they did that day.

"We still have quite a while before we have to go. What should we do now?" The green-eyed witch asked.

"I don't care as long as it doesn't require going into anymore of the establishments here." The lank-haired Slytherin responded.

"Oh! I know! Let's go look at the Shrieking Shack." Tabitha said, already dragging her tall friend ni the direction of the decrepit shack. He didn't find the idea very exciting, but went along with it. It was better than letting her take him into more shops. They sat down next to each other on the grassy area near the fence that allowed people to safely look at the Shrieking Shack without falling.

"You know, I don't believe that that place is really haunted at all." Severus told her, looking at the shack with disinterest.

"Why not?" Tabitha asked, looking at him curiously.

"It shows absolutely no signs of ghosts inhabiting it at all. There are signs that fools go up there quite a bit in order to make themselves seem brave or to cause a racket in order to reinforce the idea of it being haunted." He explained, turning his head to look back at her.

"Even if it isn't haunted, it's still interesting to look at." She replied, looking back at the shack to hide the discomfort that the conversation was starting to make her feel. As a Marauder, she knew what really went on there each month and as close as she was to Severus, she still couldn't let him know at all.

"If you're into run-down houses." Snape said, closing his eyes. Tabitha smiled a little and watched him relax.

"I think they're interesting. Who knows what sort of people lived in them or the sorts of things that took place there?" She answered, quietly scooting a bit closer to him. It was starting to become slightly chilly. Severus opened one eye to see what she was up to, having heard her move closer to him.

"Are you cold?" He asked, used to being in the slight chill from living in the house located down in the ever-cool dungeons.

"Just a little." Tabitha told him quietly, wrapping her arms around herself. He nodded, letting her get a bit closer to him in order to keep her from getting any cooler. After a little while, everybody was called back to the train to go back to Hogwarts.

The two boarded the train again and found a compartment to sit in. Tabitha set her shopping bags down and plopped down on one of the long seats of the compartment. She watched as Severus sat down across from her and stretched out his long legs comfortably, crossing his ankles. She smiled, enjoying seeing him looking so relaxed. She wished that she could see him like this more often, instead of seeing him always so stiff and uncomfortable looking.

He watched her watching him, wondering why she had such a goofy, happy expression on. He had noticed her observing him similarly to the way she was doing now quite a few times and had never understood it. Lily had never watched him like that. He considered trying to use legilimency to find out, but knew that she would likely go into a rage upon realizing what he had done. He continued to think about possible ways to find out as the train took them back to the school. Tabitha was also submerged in her thoughts as the train made its way back to the castle. Her thoughts were on what could have possibly taken her friend's concentration so completely. She had immediately noticed the change in his demeanor from relaxation to intense thought, since he had straightened his posture out some and he had started to stare a hole into the wall.

They were both startled out of their thoughts when the the train bell rang, announcing that they were arriving. Tabitha picked up her shopping bags and left the train with Serverus. They walked into school and stopped in the Entrance Hall. Tabitha smiled at him and climbed up a couple of stairs.

"I'll see you at dinner, Sev. I had a great time today in Hogsmeade with you." She told him, glad that she been able to hang out with him so much today. He nodded, also glad about having spent so much time with her. He watched as she walked up the stairs to put away her purchases.

After she was no longer in sight, he descended the stairs to the dungeon. He wanted to read in the common room for a while, thinking it seemed like an agreeable emough way to pass the hour until dinner time. As he entered the Slytherin common room a few minutes later, he saw several of the boys talking about something in excited whispers. He had a good idea of what their conversation was about, or rather who it w as about. Even he was curious about the Dark Lord. He wouldn't let Lily or Tabitha find out about it though. They probably would only judge him negatively about it now.


	7. Chapter 7: Help From A Friend

**Chapter 7: Help From A Friend**

**Disclaimer: I do not claim any rights to Harry Potter or any of the characters from it. They belong to J.K. Rowling. The only character that belongs to me, is my OC, Tabitha Tate.**

**AN: I hope you all enjoy this chapter. :P**

"Merlin's beard, Tabby Cat! We win our first game of the year and you skulk off with Snivellus instead of celebrating with us?" Sirius snarled, obviously very displeased with her.

"Yes! That is exactly what I did, Sirius! I've been to so many of the Gryffindor house parties over the years that I knew exactly what it would be like and I really wasn't in the mood for it! Sometimes I just want to hang out with someone without getting into trouble and have peace and quiet!" Tabitha yelled, scowling at her angry friend.

"Oh really? We get on your nerves so much that you prefer to be in the company of that git than be around us?" He asked, his voice escalating in volume.

"Come off it! You know it isn't like that! As much as I love you guys, you and James can be a bit much at times!" She answered, clenching her fists.

"Stop making such a big deal, Sirius. Tabitha can skip a party if she wants. There will be many more this year." Remus said, trying to make his friends stop fighting. Sirius merely set his jaw and glared at their short, female friend. She rolled her eyes, refusing to fight with him anymore.

"Let's just go to the Great Hall, you guys. I'm starving and we'll completely miss dinner if you keep this up." James saidm not liking the fighting either and wanting to see Lily during dinner. Peter was nodding anxiously in agreement not wanting to miss dinner either and quite uncomfortable from the arguing. Tabitha and Sirius looked away from each other and nodded. The group walked down to the Great Hall together in an uncomfortable silence. Tabitha hated not getting along with Sirius, but wasn't about to allow him to think that it was all right for him to boss her around. As they walked into the Great Hall, she noticed the Severus was missing from the Slytherin table. She frowned, wondering where he was at. She sat down between Remus and James, not wanting to deal with Sirius.

All throughout dinner, Tabitha glanced at the green and silver decorated table, hoping that Snape would show up eventually, She had become quite worried by the end of the meal. She was afraid that Sirius may have set up some sort of prank for Severus before they returned from Hogsmeade. She didn't ask him about it though, not wanting to fight more or give him the idea to torment Severus more.

Snaped stayed in the common room during dinner having joined the others in their meeting about finding ways to gain the attention of the Dark Lord in order to easily join his following as soon as they came of age. He really didn't like being around any of the boys at the meeting, but put up with it. He felt that becoming a Death Eater would enable him to gain power of his own and the affection of Lily so he would put up with anything in order to become one. By the time the meeting ended, he was quite hungry and wished that he had been able to go to dinner. He also knew that Tabitha had more than likely noticed his absence. He went straight to bed and took a sleeping draught, not wanting to deal with the hunger pains that he would ievitably feel all evening.

Tabitha was in a fowl mood when she and the Marauders walked into the Great Hall the next morning. She had had a hard time sleeping the night before, since she was concerned for Severus and was upset about Sirius being mad at her. He was still treating her coldly. She yawned softly, scanning the Great Hall with her forest green eyes for her Slytherin friend. She smiled lightly upon seeing him there unscathed. Her eyes caught his black meeting green for only a few seconds. Their gaze had ended when Severus looked down at his food and started to eat. Tabitha already felt a little bit better, since she now knew that Snape was all right. Still was curious about why he hadn't shown up for dinner though.

Tabitha waited in the Entrance Hall after breakfast, wanting to ask Severus about his absence at last night's meal. She hurreied over to him once she saw him leave the Great Hall.

"Good morning, Sev." She greeted, smiling up at him lightly. He looked her over for a moment before answering.

"Good morning, Tabitha. You look like you should get some more sleep." He replied, converned about how tired she looked.

"Eh. I couldn't sleep. I was worried that something had happened, since you weren't there for dinner last night." The small witch told him, looking at him inquisitvely.

"Nothing happened. I just had some important matters to discuss with a few of my housemates." He explained. The blonde nodded, furrowing her brows at him not saying what was so important that he had to miss dinner to talk about it. She knew better than to press him for information, but was worried. She knew the sorts of things his housemates were mixed up in and the idea of him getting into as well made her worry about him.

"They're all sort of boring, and as much as I like Lily, she's really bossy sometimes." She explained, shrugging. Severus nodded, but didn't say anything against Lily, not matter how minor.

"I have to go. If Sirius thinks I've been gone for too long, he'll flip his lid. See you later, Sev." Tabitha said, having noticed his irritation. She walked away from him quickly, frustrated by the way Snape had gotten annoyed with her for calling Lily bossy. She wondered if the day could possibly get worse. Tabitha was relieved to find Lupin and Peter in the common room, deciding that she would hang out with them today and avoid Sirius. She walked over to where they were sitting, playing exploding snap. Peter looked up at her curiously. Remus simply smiled lightly at her and scooted over a little so that she could sit next to him and play the next round with them.

"Hi, Tabby. Have you and Sirius made up yet?" Peter asked, looking at her with his watery blue eyes in sincere hope.

"Hi there, Wormtail. No, he's still angry." Tabitha told him.

"Don't let it bother you too much, Tabby. We have classes tomorrow, so you're going to need to get some sleep tonight." Remus said as he carefully placed a card. Tabitha nodded, knowing that he was right. She smiled lightly and got comfortable, watching her two friends play their game. Sirius and James entered the common room when the three were playing their fifth game of exploding snap. Tabitha grimaced, hoping that they'd leave soon. This obviously wasn't meant to be, since they both walked over and sat on a nearby couch.

"G'morning, Moony, Wormtail, Tabby." James greeted in return. Sirius grumbled a reply and gave Tabitha a withering look.

"Would you guys like to join our game?" Tabitha asked, trying to appeal to Sirius.

"No time for that. We have an idea for a prank." James told her. She and Remus both gave resigned sighs before helping Peter gather up the playing cards.

"What have the two of you come up with this time?" Remus asked, wanting know how much trouble they could potentially get into.

"We've found a spell that will enable us to fill a room with water without it leaking out at all so we'll flood Filch's office, the third florr girls bathroom, and the potions classroom." James said enthusiastically.

"We're going to get in sooo much trouble." Tabitha sighed, anticipating at least a week of detention.

"Not if we blame Peeves." Sirius said, starting act less icily towards her now that he was getting excited about the prank.

"Do you think the professors would actually believe us?" Tabitha asked in reply.

"No... but, since you're getting so chummy with Snivellus, naybe you could get him to tell the professors that Peeves is the culprit." James suggested, giving her puppy-dog eyes.

"I doubt it. I'll try though." She said, hoping that Severus woulda t least find a way to keep her out of trouble. "And don't call him that!" She added, frowning.

"Why do you care so much? You don't have a crush on that greasy git, do you, Tabby Cat?" Sirius asked, looking at her sharply.

"What? No!" Tabitha gasped, blushing a little. He just gave her a suspicious look in reply.

"So, when will we put this plan in motion?" Remus asked, wanting to know how long they'd have to get ready beforehand.

"Tonight, before dinner." James answered/

"I'm guessing the two of you have already devised a way to distract the professors and the other prefects?" Lupin asked.

"Indeed. We have gathered up enough dung ombs to hide in several areas within the castle. We need your guys' help now to hide them. We'll set them off all at the same time before meeting up to flood the rooms." Sirius said, grinning. The group discussed the plan some more for nearly an hour before spreading out to plant the dung bomb behind a tall stack of books in one corner of the room. She then left the room cautious, not wanting to be seen leaving. She left that corridor and started towards the Great Hall, making sure to look nonchalant. It was time for lunch and she was starting to feel quite hungry. She entered the large hall and sat down at the Gryffindor table with her friends.

"So,you will talk to Snivelly about blaming Peeves, right?" James asked her before shoveling more food into his mouth.

"Yes. I said I would, Prongs." Tabitha assured. After lunch, Tabitha hurried to catch up with Severus, seeing him heading towards the dungeons.

"Sev, wait up! I need to talk to you about something." She called out to him. He stopped and turned, lifting a brow in question. Tabitha darted over to him and smiled nervously.

"Hi. I know this is going to sound dumb, but the guys and I are going to flood some rooms before dinner and I was hoping that you'd blame Peeves for us." She told him, biting her bottom lip lightly.

"You want me to keep Potter and the rest of his dunderheaded friends out of trouble?" He sneered, wondering why she would even bother to ask him.

"Well, it'd keep me out of trouble too.. And I think it'd help get Sirius off of my back." She quietly pointed out. He rolled his eyes and nodded, agreeing to lie for them. As much as he'd love to go tell a professor to get the four boys in trouble, he didn't want to make things worse between Tabitha and Black. He didn't like how much the other boy's anger upsetted her. Tabitha smiled happily and gave him a quick hug before he could stop her.

"Thanks, Sev." She said before running off to tell James that he'd lie about Peeves for them. He watched her leave, cursing himself for being so soft for her. He was quite confused, having noticed that she had been on his mind much more often than Lily lately. He wasn't sure why he had such a soft spot for the blonde Gryffindor now, but didn't plan to do anything about it.

"Severus says he'll tell the professors that Peeves is responsible." Tabitha announced as she walked over to Sirius and James in the common room.

"Excellent!" James said, grinning excitedly.

"Yeah. Maybe Snivellus is good for something after all." Sirius added. Tabitha gave him a disapproving look, not liking the name calling. That evening multiple dung bombs were set off throughout the castle, causing the prefects and professors to be quite distracted as the five Gryffindors flood Filch's office, the third floor girl's bathroom, and the potions classroom, hidden by disillusionment charms and a few of them by the invisibility cloak. After they were finished with their mischeif, they hurried to the Great Hall for dinner. It was halfway through dinner when Filch stormed into the hall, yelling about the flooded rooms. Tabitha and the others did their best to look innocent and just as surprised as everyone else. McGonagall looked over at them sharply, thinking that they were guilty.

"Now, now, Argus. Surely someone here saw something." Dumbledore soothed, eyes twinkling.

"Sir, I saw Peeves messing around near the potions classroom earlier, singing about desks sailing." Snape told him from his spot at the Slytherin table.

"That no-good poltergeist! I don't see why he's still allowed around here!" Filch snarled, leaving to find his least favorite ghost. Tabitha smiled over at Severus discretely grateful for his help. He smirked back, pleased that nobody had questioned him at all.


	8. Chapter 8: The Great Gryffindor Monster

**Chapter 8: The Great Gryffindor Monster**

**Disclaimer: I do not claim any rights to Harry Potter or any of the characters from it. They belong to J.K. Rowling. The only character that belongs to me, is my OC, Tabitha Tate.**

**AN: I've had this written up in my notebook for I don't even know how long now. I also have chapter 9 and part of 10 written out. I'll hopefully get them all copied down on my laptop and post them within a relatively short amount of time. Enjoy. :D**

Tabitha rushed down the stairs from the girls dormitories.

"Happy Halloween, everybody!" She cried as she entered the common room.

"Oh yeah, it's your favorite holiday, isn't it, Tabby Cat?" Sirius asked, chuckling at her excitement.

"Yep! Halloween is the best holiday ever!" She sang, twirling through the room childishly.

"Calm down. You're going to hurt yourself, acting like that." Remus told her, smiling good-naturedly. Tabitha stuck her tongue out at him playfully before skipping out of the common room. She wanted to wish Severus a happy Halloween before going to the Great Hall for breakfast.

She smiled, happily, seeing Severus walking up the stairs from the dungeons.

"Happy Halloween, Sev!" She said as she walked over to him. He nodded, noting her excitement over the holiday. She grabbed his hand, gently pulling him to the doors that went out to the grounds.

"Where are you taking me?" He asked, letting her lead him.

"On a walk around the lake." Tabitha answered, smiling.

"What about breakfast?" Severus asked, not wanting to completely miss it.

"There'll be plenty of time for it, since there aren't any classes today." She assured. They walked out of the castle and into the chilly morning. Tabitha hummed softly to herself as they approached the lake. She could see one of the giant squid's tentacles wave through the air before disappearing under the dark surface of the water again.

Severus silently listened to his petite friend hum a familiar tune, thinking it sounded quite nice, despite that she was off-pitch more often than not. He wasn't sure why he had consented to being brought out to the cold grounds instead of refusing in order to go eat breakfast in the nice, warm Great Hall, but didn't say anything about it. There really was no denying that he enjoyed the company of this short, blonde girl. He still stubbornly insisted to himself that he cared far more for Lily, and that Tabitha held a different spot in his rather empty heart.

"Do you have a favorite holiday, Sev?" Tabitha asked after a few minutes, looking up at him curiously.

"No. They all seem rather pointless to me." Snape answered, not having any truly meaningful holiday memories.

"They don't need a point. They're mostly just for fun, in my opinion." Tabitha replied, offering him a small smile.

"Halloween has always been my favorite. It has a much more interesting story than the other holidays and is a lot of fun to celebrate." She said, picking up a decently sized stone and tossing it into the lake. He nodded to let her know that he had heard her, watching as she rubbed her hands together in an attempt to get some dirt off of her hands that had been on the rock originally.

Tabitha, seeing that Severus wasn't going to say anything on the subject, decided that she would just continue to talk.

"I'm probably going to spend most of the day in the library to look for stuff to read that will make the girls from my dormitory uncomfortable. I found a really disturbing one last year. It will be much more difficult this year though, I think. I don't think that the new DADA professor will be anywhere near as willing to give me a note to get into the restricted section." She sighed, disappointed that this year's DADA professor wasn't as gullible as the last.

"You shouldn't mess around with the books from the restricted section. They aren't playthings." Severus told her, his eyes narrowing. Tabitha furrowed her brows, feeling like she was being scolded like a small child.

"It's not like I'm being careless with them. I'm always really careful when handling them." She quietly huffed. She appreciated the concern, but didn't like being reprimanded like that. He was only a few months older than her, after all.

"Don't be so childish. You shouldn't be looking at books like that in the first place." He hissed, irritated by immature reaction to what he'd said.

"I'm not scared of those books. I'm going to be an auror, so, I need to learn about the dark arts anyways. I'm not some helpless baby that can't take care of things." She quietly said, not wanting to argue with him. He scowled, finding it wrong for her to read such dark tomes. She seemed too pure for such things.

Tabitha smiled at him, hoping to get rid of his sour expression.

"If it really bothers you that much, I'll find some other way to creep people out tonight. You'll have to help though, since it will probably require some work." She told him, grabbing his hand again and resuming their stroll around the lake.

"Why must you bother people at all?" Severus asked, rolling his eyes. He thought that the need she felt to unnerve people simply because of the holiday was silly.

"It's Halloween. Other than the feast and pulling pranks with the guys, not much else happens in celebration of the holiday." Tabitha explained, shrugging.

"Fine. As long as it doesn't get me into trouble, I'll help you." Severus told her moodily, finding it preferable to her wandering around in the restricted section of the library. The small, green-eyed witch grinned, quite happy about him agreeing to assist her on her mission to freak people out. She chattered about different ideas throughout the rest of their walk.

Later that day, the two could be found in the third floor girls' bathroom. Severus was brewing a potion that they had decided to use in the plan they'd come up with. Tabitha was sitting nearby, keeping Snape company. She rested her eyes, relaxing while she waited for him to finish making the potion. Severus appreciated her company, even though she wasn't saying anything. She dozed off after a little while, sitting with her back against the wall. He woke her up once he had finished brewing the potion.

Tabitha startled a little, waking up as Severus gently shook her shoulder.

"Oops. I guess I fell asleep." She softly said, smiling at him.

"Indeed. The potion is ready." He quietly replied. Tabitha stretched and got up, dusting off the back of her robes.

"That's good. All we have to do now is wait until it's time to use it." She pointed out. It was still early in the afternoon and the potion was going to be used during the night. Snape nodded, glad that the entire day hadn't been used up. He was hoping to spend some time with Lily. Tabitha frowned a little, clearly able to see that Severus would rather be elsewhere.

"I'll see you tonight to get the potion, Sev." She said before departing from the room. She figured that she would spend the rest of the day with Remus, James, Peter, and Sirius, since she could tell that Severus wanted to go find Lily. She walked up to the common room. The blonde witch smiled, seeing Sirius asleep on the couch across from the fireplace.

"Wake up, Padfoot! Halloween is no time for a nap!" She exclaimed, playfully trying to pull him off the couch.

"Ugh, don't do that, Tabby Cat. It's a perfect time to take a nap." Sirius yawned, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her onto the couch with him. She squirmed, trying to get away.

"Nope! Let's go~ Naps are boring and they're for babies!" Tabitha argued. She started to make Sirius have silly expressions with her hands, determined to make him get up.

"Fine. I'll get up." Sirius relented, gently pushing Tabitha off of the couch before sat up.

"Good. I knew you'd come around. Let's go find the others. I'm bored." Tabitha replied, getting up. Sirius yawned and ruffled his hair, giving a small nod.

"Lead the way then." He said. Tabitha grinned and led him out of the common room. She knew that they would probably find their friends at the quidditch pitch. They promptly left the castle and crossed the grounds, soon arriving at the quidditch pitch. James was chasing an old snitch around on his broom while Peter watched and Remus was sitting in the stands, reading a book.

"Hey, Prongs, want to start a two-on-two game?" She called out to her flying friend.

"Sure. As long as Moony's on your team." James replied, flying closer. Remus sighed, knowing that he would have little choice in whether or not he'd play with them.

"That means that you have to ref, Wormtail." Sirius told their short, chubby friend. Peter didn't seem to mind, but that wasn't surprising, since he always did whatever Sirius and James told him to do and he was horrible at flying on broomsticks. The group spent the rest of the afternoon out on the pitch, only going in once it was time for dinner.

After dinner, Tabitha met up with Severus to get the potion from him. She was quite excited about using it to scare her housemates. She grinned impishly as he handed the bottle to her. Her grin faded as she looked up at him, able to see that he was upset about something.

"What's wrong, Sev?" She quietly asked, concerned.

"It isn't any of your business, Tate." He sneered, covering up his unhappiness by being unpleasant.

"I don't care if 'nothing to do with me.' You're my friend and it bothers me a lot when my friends are upset. Tell me what's wrong, or I'm going to worry about it all day." Tabitha sighed, reaching out and gently grabbing his hand. Severus looked away from her, knowing that she was sincerely bothered by the fact that he was unhappy.

"Does it have something to do with Lily?" She guessed, gently squeezing his hand.

"It doesn't matter. There's nothing that can be done about it." He answered, scowling.

"So, it does have to do with her. Don't worry. I'm sure she'll come around." She said, offering a reassuring smile. He slid his hand out of hers and walked away, still unhappy.

Tabitha hid the bottled potion in a pocket of her robes and returned to Gryffindor Tower, thinking about what could have happened between Severus and Lily. She snuck up to the girls' dormitories and hid the potion in her trunk. After it was safely hidden away, she returned to the common room and sat in front of the fireplace. She closed her eyes, letting herself get swept away by her thoughts. Her line of thought was soon interrupted by Sirius and James. The two burst into the common room, loudly discussing the finer points of quidditch. She rolled her eyes in bemusement, wondering why the two felt they had to be so loud. She smiled at Remus, seeing him follow James and Sirius into the room.

"Good evening." She greeted, getting up.

"Hello, Tabby." Remus replied, smiling lightly.

"Where's Peter?" Tabitha asked, tilting her head slightly.

"The hospital wing. He ate too many sweets at the feast." He answered, chuckling. Tabitha giggled, glad that she hadn't gone overboard like that on the sweets.

"I'm guessing you've already come up with a way to scare the pants off our housemates?" Sirius questioned, grinning mischievously.

"As a matter of fact, I have." Tabitha told him, grinning back deviously.

"Are you going to tell us what your plan is then?" James asked, quite curious about it as well now.

"Nope. You'll have to wait and see what happens, just like everyone else." She told him, letting him know that they weren't safe from her plot.

"You aren't even going to exempt your dearest friends from your malicious scheme?" Sirius teasingly asked, pretending to be horrified.

"Of course not, you drama queen." Tabitha answered, laughing at his dramatics.

"Whatever shall we do, Padfoot?" James asked, joining Sirius in his silly display of childishness.

"I don't know, Prongs. I'm so scared, I can't even think straight." Sirius replied, dramatically pretending to sob.

"You could both do the world a favor by beginning with growing some brains." Remus suggested bemusedly marking his place in his book and closing it. Tabitha giggled and picked Borris up, who had been rubbing against her legs and meowing insistently.

"I'll talk to you guys later. I have to give my cat some food." She told them before heading to the girls' dormitories.

It was about eleven o' clock that night when Tabitha decided it was time to put her plan into action. She silently snuck out of bed and collected the potion from her trunk. All of her roommates were asleep, so she felt that she was safe from anyone seeing her with the potion. She unstoppered it and quickly downed the contents. She had the odd sensation of pins and needles as she became transparent. Her eyes itched a bit as they started to glow ghoulishly. She grinned, able to see her spookily glowing eyes in a nearby mirror.

Tabitha took a deep breath before letting out a piercing shriek, sounding quite crazed. The other girls startled from their sleep and quickly started letting out fearful shrieks, seeing a creature with hellish eyes throwing things about the room manically. None of them could see that the being was Tabitha, since the only thing truly visible was her glowing eyes in the dark. She chased the girls into the dark common room, letting out shrieks and wails. She went to the boys' dormitories once the other girls had left, wanting to see how they would react.

It turns out that the boys were all awake already and were getting up to find out why the girls had all been screaming. When Tabitha appeared in the doorway. she was plucked off of the floor before she could do anything.

"You couldn't fool us, Tabby Cat." Sirius chuckled.

"Damn! Oh well, the potion'll start wearing off any minute now anyways." Tabitha sighed disappointedly.

"You should've known that you wouldn't be able to scare us, Tabby." James said, grinning. Remus merely yawned and returned to bed. Peter kept looking at Tabitha, unnerved by her glowing eyes.

"It was worth a shot. My roommates all left the tower completely." She said, shrugging. She was already becoming visible again.

"I'd suggest going to bed soon. We have classes tomorrow." James said, chuckling. Tabitha nodded and bid her friends goodnight.

The next morning, all the girls, minus one Tabitha Lynn Tate, were insisting to anyone who would listen that a monster had made a mess of Gryffindor Tower the night before. Lily didn't seem as convinced as the others, but Tabitha had expected as much. Lily was quite good at figuring out when she and the others were the culprits. She waved to Lily when she had looked over at her suspiciously.

Tabitha left the Great Hall once she was finished eating her breakfast. She wasn't really looking forward to sitting through an hour of listening to Professor Binns drone endlessly about the Goblin Wars. She did want to tell Severus about how well things had gone last night though. She walked into the classroom and smiled, seeing Severus sitting at one of the long tables. She sat down next to him, placing her book bag on the table.

"Hi, Severus. The potion worked perfectly last night." Tabitha quietly said, holding out the small glass bottle that had previously contained the potion. It was spotlessly clean now, since she had cleaned it thoroughly, thinking that Severus would want it back.

"Where did you find out about that potion in the first place?" Snape asked her.

"A prank book that I got for my birthday last year. It was the only place I'd ver seen anything about it." Tabitha told him, shrugging.

"That isn't surprising. It isn't a very useful potion at all, since the effect only lasts for ten minutes." He replied.

"It served its purpose, so I'd say it's useful enough." Tabitha said, smiling lightly.

"Oh! Did Lily ever come around last night?" She quietly asked, wanting to know if his Halloween had gotten any better, since he had seemed pretty unhappy.

"She and I studied in the library for a little while before curfew." He answered, carefully hiding his happiness about it behind his usual cold demeanor.

"Good. I told you she would." Tabitha softly said, secretly trying to push down her jealousy.


	9. Chapter 9: Bad Moon Rising

**Chapter 9: Bad Moon Rising**

**Disclaimer: I do not claim any rights to Harry Potter or any of the characters from it. They belong to J.K. Rowling. The only character that belongs to me, is my OC, Tabitha Tate.**

**AU: I meant to get this up sooner. Sorry for taking so long. :P Enjoy.**

"Hold on, Moony. We're almost there." Tabitha softly said, hurrying across the grounds with her friends. James and Sirius had their arms around Remus's sides and were partly dragging him between them. Peter had run ahead and was transforming into his rat form.

"We definitely waited too long to come out here tonight." James said, worrying that Remus would start changing before they could get him into the Shrieking Shack. Remus currently looked as though he might throw-up.

"I'll go ahead and find a place to keep watch from." Tabitha said before jogging off to a line of trees that would give her a good view of the grounds. She climbed up to the highest safe branch on the tallest tree. Once she was safely settled on the branch, she transformed into her animagus form, an ocelot. She looked around, her vision much better in the dark now that she was a feline.

Tabitha kept a silent vigil over the grounds for a few hours without incident before a chilling howl pierced the silence. She pricked her ears up straight and scanned the grounds quickly. She hurried down from the tree, seeing Remus chasing James. She wondered how he had escaped from the Shrieking Shack. She yowled at the werewolf, trying to distract him long enough for James to change into a stag. She saw that he was ignoring her, so she changed back into her human form.

"Hey, Moony, I want to play too!" She yelled to the beast. Remus immediately turned to her and snarled, not recognizing her at all.

"Oh hell!" Tabitha hissed to herself as she started to run away. She narrowly avoided being caught be Remus, who had pounced at her. She darted to the trees that marked the beginning of the Forbidden Forest. She zigzagged crazily around the trees, thinking that it would be a lot easier to put distance between Remus and herself in the forest. She tried to find any narrow places she could, hoping he wouldn't be able to follow eventually, due to his large size. She didn't chance a single glance back to see how close he was, not wanting to slow down at all or run into anything.

She could tell that Remus was catching up to her, since she could hear his loud, panting breaths. Tabitha let out a pained scream after a few more minutes of this, feeling his claws rake over her left shoulder. She heard Remus angrily snarl as another canine jumped on him. Tabitha climbed up a tree so that she was high up, out of reach for the werewolf. She transformed into her ocelot form, hoping it would dissuade Remus from continuing to hunt her. She watched as Sirius led him off. She hoped that he'd be fast enough to lose the beast, since he was in his dog form. None of them returned to the castle until late the next afternoon. James and Sirius treated her scratches as well as they knew how to, but they'd still take a while to heal up and would definitely scar.

"It's not your fault, Moony. You couldn't help it." Tabitha comforted, wrapping her arm around her distraught, ill friend.

"I could've killed you. Maybe it is too dangerous for me to continue going to school." Remus quietly said, staring down at his hands.

"Shut-it! I don't want to hear rubbish like that come from your mouth again, Remus Lupin. You can't help that you have that disease. You're one of my best mates and you are an extremely sweet person! There is absolutely no reason for you to give up on attending Hogwarts." Tabitha scolded, hating how he thought so lowly of himself. He only shrugged in response, not agreeing with most of what she said.

"She's right, Moony. It was an accident. You had no control over yourself." James told him.

"Exactly! I had no control at all! I could kill someone!" Remus exclaimed, disgusted with himself.

"You won't kill anyone, Remus. We won't let that happen." Sirius said, yawning. Tabitha sighed, envying Peter, who had gone to bed earlier that morning. They were all exhausted, making them pretty short-tempered. She led the three boys into the castle and walked with them to the hospital wing, where Remus would be spending the next couple of days. She kept her shoulder hidden by wearing the jacket James had worn the night before, knowing better than to let anyone see the deep scratches.

After Remus had gotten settled into the hospital wing, Tabitha, James, and Sirius walked up to Gryffindor Tower. They were going to skip the rest of the classes for the day in favor of getting some sleep. Tabitha mumbled a sleepy "Goodnight" to her friends before heading up to the girls' dormitories, not caring that it wasn't night at all.

Tabitha slept throughout the rest of the day and through most of the night. She woke up at around four AM and got ready for the day. She snuck out of the tower, being careful not to move her painful, bandaged shoulder. She wasn't worried about being seen, having taken James's invisibility cloak. She quietly entered the hospital wing, wanting to see how Remus was doing. She was surprised to find him sitting up, reading.

"Couldn't sleep?" She softly asked, taking off the cloak.

"Afraid not." Remus answered, giving her a weak smile. She sat down on the foot of his bed, deciding to keep him company.

"How's your shoulder?" He asked, looking at her with concern.

"It's fine. It doesn't even hurt that much anymore." She lied, giving a reassuring smile. Remus smiled back a little, but it was quite obvious that he didn't believe her.

"You'll bring my homework for me later, won't you?" Remus asked.

"Of course. I'll even make sure that Peter remembers to get your divinations homework for you." Tabitha assured, glad that he was concerned about missing classes, since it meant that he was starting to feel like he belonged at the school again. The two of them started discussing mundane things after that. Tabitha stayed with him until it was time for breakfast.

Tabitha tried to avoid crowds in the corridors as she walked to the Great Hall, not wanting anyone to accidentally jostle her shoulder and open up the fragile, stiff scabs that had form over the gashes there. The last thing she needed right now was to bleed through her bandages. She reached the Great Hall after breakfast had started. She sat down between James and Sirius, knowing that they'd help her reach for things, since they knew about her shoulder.

Severus quickly noticed that something wasn't right about his blonde Gryffindor friend. She was favoring her right side far too much and looked uncomfortable whenever she had to move her left side much at all. He glared at her friends, deeming them as guilty for whatever had happened, since they were assisting her way too much to not know anything about the reason for her discomfort. He followed her out of the Great Hall after breakfast, intent on finding out what those dunderheads had done to her. He easily caught up to her.

"What's wrong with your side?" He asked bluntly, not seeing any reason to dance around the question.

"What are you talking about? Nothing's wrong with my side." Tabitha asked.

"Don't lie to me, Tate." He sneered, bothered that she had lied to him.

"I hurt my shoulder last night. I'm sure that it will be fine." She sighed, frowning a little.

"Let me see. It's obviously much worse than you say it is, since you felt it was necessary to be dishonest about it in the first place." Snape replied coolly. He was quite concerned, but would die sooner than saying so. Tabitha blushed, looking up at him.

"What? No. We're in a place someone could see. Plus, that'd require taking my shirt off." She told him. He rolled his eyes and grabbed her right arm, brisquely pulling her to the third floor girls' lavatory.

"Don't be such a child. You are injured and I have some knowledge in healing spells, thanks to your friends." He said, his patience wearing rather thin.

Tabitha let out a defeated sigh and turned around, wanting to make this as unawkward as possible. She took off her robe, vest, and blouse and folded them up neatly. She carefully unwound the bandages that covered the gashes, hissing softly in pain as her scabs stuck to the material.

Severus's eyes widened for only a fraction of a second as he laid them on his friend's wounds. They were long and rather deep, bleeding again now. The wounds looked like they must have been caused by a rather large beast's claws.

"How did you get those?" He asked, wondering why she hadn't gone to the hospital wing.

"The guys and I snuck out to the Forbidden Forest last night. I got separated from the others and something attacked me." Tabitha lied.

"You should go to the hospital wing. I'm not going to be able to heal those very well." Snape told her, anger shining in his eyes. How dare Potter and his foolish friends drag Tabitha out to the forest and allow her to get hurt like this?

"No way. The others and I would get into so much trouble! My parents would probably have to find out too! Please, Severus, just do what you can for me and keep this a secret." She begged.

"You're being an idiot." He told her, pulling his wand out of a pocket in his robe. He started working on closing her wounds up as well as he knew how to. Tabitha shuddered at the strange sensation of her flesh trying to crawl back together. By the time Severus was finished, Tabitha's gashes were partially closed and the scarring already forming was slightly puckered and lighter than the rest of her skin.

Tabitha pulled a spare sheet of parchment out of her book bag and transfigured it into a sponge, wanting to wash off the crusted blood from around the gashes. She was able to clean most of it off, but needed help with the back of her shoulder.

"Umm.. Would you help me?" She asked, holding out the wet sponge to him. He flushed a little, but took the sponge and gave a small nod. He tried to focus on what he was doing, but couldn't help but glance at Tabitha's uncovered back and sides. He knew it was shameful to look, but he was only a teenage boy after all, with as many raging hormones as any other healthy boy his age. He was very relieved once had finished washing the blood from her shoulder blade.

"You should probably rebandage your shoulder." He told her. Tabitha nodded and used a cleaning spell on her bandages. He waited while she redressed her wounds and put her blouse, vest, and robes back on.

"Thanks, Sev." Tabitha softly said, offering a small smile. He gave a single nod in reply.

"...You won't tell anyone about my shoulder or anything, right?" She quietly asked.

"I won't. It isn't anyone else's business." Severus answered. Tabitha smiled and ensnared him in a quick hug. He stiffly returned the hug, still not quite comfortable with this, but getting there.


End file.
